TECH

China’s Zhipu AI Secures $140 Million Investment From Shanghai State Funds Amid IPO Push

Published: Jul. 3, 2025 4:22 a.m. GMT+8

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Founded five years ago, Zhipu AI is one of China’s earliest generative AI start-ups

Chinese generative artificial intelligence unicorn Zhipu AI has secured 1 billion yuan ($140 million) in fresh funding from Shanghai’s state-backed investors, boosting its momentum ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO).

The announcement coincided with the unveiling of new products aimed at strengthening the company’s position as a leading domestic AI player.

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Zhipu AI secured 1 billion yuan ($140 million) from Shanghai state-backed investors, lifting pre-IPO funding to over 10 billion yuan and a valuation above 20 billion yuan ($2.79 billion).
The company, China’s oldest and largest AI unicorn with about 2,000 employees, launched new AI models, consumer device integrations, and an open-source multimodal model.
Zhipu has 25 million app users, over 10 major corporate deployments, and a recent MaaS platform targeting industry clients.

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Who’s Who

Zhipu AI: Zhipu AI, a Chinese generative AI unicorn founded in 2019, secured $140 million (1 billion yuan) from Shanghai's state-backed investors. Incubated at Tsinghua University, Zhipu aims to be "China's OpenAI" and is preparing for an IPO. It develops large language models, including GLM, with applications in enterprise and consumer electronics. The company has over 25 million users and partnerships with major brands.

Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co. Ltd.: Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co. Ltd. is the parent company of Zhipu AI, a Chinese generative AI unicorn. Founded in June 2019 and incubated at Tsinghua University, it aims to become "China's OpenAI." Zhipu AI recently secured significant funding from state-backed investors, including 1 billion yuan from Shanghai. They are preparing for an IPO and have attracted over 10 billion yuan in total funding with a valuation exceeding 20 billion yuan.

China International Capital Corp.: China International Capital Corp. has been appointed as the sponsor for Zhipu AI's planned initial public offering. This significant role indicates their involvement in guiding Zhipu AI through the IPO process, a key step for the generative artificial intelligence unicorn as it seeks to become publicly traded.

Zhuhai Huafa Group: Zhuhai Huafa Group is a state-owned investment company based in Zhuhai, China. The group contributed 500 million yuan to support Zhipu AI's Generalized Language Model (GLM) foundation model development, as part of a series of investments Zhipu AI secured from state-owned funds across China.

Deloitte China: Deloitte China is a partner of Chinese generative AI unicorn Zhipu AI. They are utilizing Zhipu's technology for corporate use cases, specifically in areas such as smart customer service, document parsing, and content generation.

Focus Media: Focus Media is one of Zhipu AI's corporate partners. Zhipu AI has demonstrated 10 corporate use cases, with Focus Media being one of the partners. These cases mainly involve smart customer service, document parsing, and content generation.

Huatai Securities: Huatai Securities is a Chinese financial institution that has partnered with Zhipu AI. They are leveraging Zhipu AI's technology for commercial deployment, specifically in smart customer service, document parsing, and content generation.

Mengniu Dairy: Mengniu Dairy is one of Zhipu AI's enterprise clients. It utilizes Zhipu's AI technology for smart customer service, document parsing, and content generation, demonstrating the commercial deployment of Zhipu's large language models.

SAIC Motor: SAIC Motor is one of Zhipu AI's enterprise partners. Zhipu AI has demonstrated 10 corporate use cases, with SAIC Motor primarily utilizing its AI for smart customer service, document parsing, and content generation.

Kingsoft Office: Kingsoft Office is a partner of Zhipu AI, a Chinese generative AI unicorn. Kingsoft Office uses Zhipu AI's technology mainly for smart customer service, document parsing, and content generation.

Xpeng Motors: Xpeng Motors is a Chinese manufacturer that has partnered with Zhipu AI. This collaboration aims to integrate Zhipu's large model technology into Xpeng's hardware, indicating an expansion of AI capabilities in consumer electronics.

Honor: Honor is a consumer electronics manufacturer that announced a deal with Zhipu AI to integrate Zhipu's large model technology into its hardware. In October 2024, Honor's new MagicOS 9.0 smartphone system featured AI-powered automation built on Zhipu's foundational models.

Samsung: Samsung is a consumer electronics manufacturer that has partnered with Chinese generative AI unicorn Zhipu AI. Since May 2024, Samsung has announced deals with Zhipu to integrate its large model technology into hardware.

Asus: Asus, a manufacturer of consumer electronics, has partnered with Zhipu AI. This collaboration involves integrating Zhipu's large model technology into Asus hardware, indicating a focus on embedding AI agents into their devices.

Qualcomm: Qualcomm, an American chipmaker, is collaborating with Chinese generative AI unicorn Zhipu AI. Their partnership involves integrating Zhipu AI's large model technology into hardware, indicating Qualcomm's role in enabling AI capabilities within devices.

Intel: Intel is mentioned as a chipmaker that has formed a deal with Zhipu AI to integrate Zhipu's large model technology into hardware.

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What Happened When

June 2019：: Zhipu AI was founded and incubated at Tsinghua University.

August 2022：: Zhipu became China’s first startup to launch a homegrown pre-trained large language model.

By March 2024：: Zhipu had demonstrated 10 corporate AI use cases with partners such as Deloitte China, Focus Media, Huatai Securities, Mengniu Dairy, SAIC Motor, and Kingsoft Office.

Since May 2024：: Zhipu announced collaborations with consumer electronics manufacturers like Xpeng Motors, Honor, Samsung, Asus, Qualcomm, and Intel to embed its AI technology into hardware.

October 2024：: Honor’s MagicOS 9.0 smartphone system featured AI-powered automation built on Zhipu’s foundational models.

November 29, 2024：: Zhipu unveiled GLM PC, an AI agent for personal computers, upgrading its earlier mobile AutoGLM.

March 2025：: Zhipu raised more than 1 billion yuan in strategic funding rounds from investors such as Hangzhou Industry Investment Group and Hangzhou Shangcheng District State-owned Capital Operation Group. Zhuhai Huafa Group and Chengdu High-Tech Zone also invested.

April 14, 2025：: Zhipu’s parent company filed for IPO counseling, appointing China International Capital Corp. as its sponsor.

April 15, 2025：: China’s securities regulator disclosed the IPO counseling filing.

April 2025：: Beijing’s AI industry fund invested another 200 million yuan in Zhipu.

By July 2, 2025：: Before the latest Shanghai investment, Zhipu had raised over 10 billion yuan, reaching a valuation exceeding 20 billion yuan ($2.79 billion).

July 2, 2025：: At its ecosystem conference in Shanghai, Zhipu announced 1 billion yuan in new funding from Shanghai’s Pudong Venture Capital and Zhangjiang Group, the open-sourcing of its GLM-4.1V-Thinking model, and the launch of a MaaS AI agent aggregation platform.

AI generated, for reference only